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The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Hour 1: Can We Make This a Football Show?

Mon, 03 Feb 2025

Description

Stugotz stays on his point that this Luka Doncic trade means nothing despite the overwhelming evidence being presented otherwise. Is this a precedent setting trade? And why does our South Beach Sessions producer hate our basketball shows? Then, Mike delivers his Top 5 Most Talented QBs at the Height of Their Powers. Plus, God Bless Football's plans for the Super Bowl and Stugotz's Weekend Observations. Also, Myles Garrett has demanded a trade from the Cleveland Browns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Audio
Transcription

0.738 - 4.659 Unknown

Now streaming, Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh takes command.

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5.159 - 8.04 Unknown

Gather your people. We're going to need every one of them.

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8.36 - 12.48 Unknown

In Section 31, a new Star Trek original movie on Paramount+.

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12.981 - 16.481 Unknown

Section 31 is just a place for people to bend the rules.

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16.541 - 18.562 Stephanie Vogel

Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits murder.

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18.862 - 20.362 Unknown

What a cute idea.

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21.242 - 22.803 Advertisement Narrator

This is chaos. Let's get messy.

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23.583 - 28.484 Unknown

Don't miss Star Trek Section 31. Now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

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41.624 - 42.324 Zach Bock

Where's mom?

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44.165 - 46.847 Raquel Bock

I called her phone and it went straight to voicemail.

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47.247 - 49.448 Zach Bock

I've never seen my mom not answer her phone.

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49.748 - 52.57 Raquel Bock

Where are you? What are you doing? No response.

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53.09 - 54.01 Zach Bock

Something's not right.

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54.351 - 55.471 Raquel Bock

Something wasn't right.

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55.931 - 57.012 Zach Bock

My name is Zach Fock.

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57.572 - 58.793 Raquel Bock

I am Raquel.

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58.973 - 61.074 Zach Bock

My mom was Dee Warner.

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61.674 - 62.695 Raquel Bock

Dee was my mom.

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65.467 - 71.873 Zach Bock

Raquel called me. She was at mom's house, and she couldn't find her. Her cars were there. She wasn't there.

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72.874 - 78.438 Greg Cote

There's no chance that she would not drive the Escalade to wherever the hell she was going. Not my sister.

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78.458 - 94.772 Stephanie Vogel

My mom was a very bubbly, outgoing person. She made you laugh. There wasn't a day that I was in the office where we weren't laughing. She's a very, very good businesswoman. She's very smart. She could be very tough. You didn't want to be on her bad side.

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95.733 - 100.295 Shelly

She was a good sister-in-law. She spoke the truth. You knew where you stood with her.

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100.495 - 113.724 Raquel Bock

She was always done up. Her nails were done. Her hair was done. Her eyelashes were done. Always ready to go and beautiful. We reported her missing at night, Sunday night.

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127.547 - 132.128 Advertisement Narrator

That was not unusual for your mom to pack her bags and disappear for a day, right?

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132.268 - 132.508 Dale Warner

Right.

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135.128 - 138.469 Raquel Bock

Why is this so different? Because nobody knew where she was at.

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147.189 - 148.67 Greg Cote

I began searching and searching.

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148.83 - 149.97 Shelly

We were running around.

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150.17 - 153.411 Zach Bock

Looking at all the credit cards to see if there was a charge on it.

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153.591 - 155.972 Advertisement Narrator

Dee Warner hasn't been seen since late April.

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162.765 - 168.609 Stephanie Vogel

She was just a mess that day, a complete mess, hyperventilating and throwing up and crying.

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168.629 - 173.893 Advertisement Narrator

The FBI searched Warner's Franklin Township property. They've looked everywhere.

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174.013 - 177.095 Greg Cote

Five, six, 700 acres. We all went on foot.

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180.838 - 182.759 Shelly

The first year was a struggle.

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185.821 - 192.266 Advertisement Narrator

Authorities say they are constantly following up on tips. It's been more than two years since Dee Warner's disappearance.

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192.537 - 197.2 Shelly

There's not a day since she left that I don't wonder what happened to her.

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197.74 - 201.803 Advertisement Narrator

When you're driving through here, are you still wondering where Dee is?

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202.283 - 204.244 Greg Cote

Yeah, you know, I sort of haunt you.

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206.926 - 213.81 Shelly

She was reported missing more than three years ago. She never would have left like this, never. Never. Never.

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215.431 - 217.032 Advertisement Narrator

When do you miss your mother the most?

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222.199 - 223.18 Raquel Bock

when life gets hard.

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225.761 - 227.782 Advertisement Narrator

Do you think Dee Warner was murdered?

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227.922 - 230.444 Stephanie Vogel

Yes. Wholeheartedly.

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231.104 - 231.645 Advertisement Narrator

Absolutely.

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233.686 - 240.55 Shelly

We had been struggling because everybody said, you don't have a body. You don't have a body. I know a no body homicide is very hard.

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241.13 - 248.415 Billy

Maybe you'll find the body. Maybe you won't. But don't sit around waiting for Santa Claus to come. You've got to solve this case.

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256.818 - 261.328 Advertisement Narrator

Aaron Moriarty reports the nobody case of Dee Warner.

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267.136 - 279.119 Raquel Bock

I remember riding my bike around there, riding the four-wheelers around there, just being a kid. That was where I grew up. So it's home, it'll always be home to me, but it's home in a different way now.

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279.88 - 295.624 Advertisement Narrator

It was Sunday, April 25th, 2021, a spring morning in the farmland of Lenawee County, Michigan. Raquel Bock drove the short distance from her house to her childhood home for her weekly breakfast with her mother, Dee Warner.

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296.169 - 298.811 Raquel Bock

Sundays, we would go to my mom's first thing.

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299.391 - 306.076 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel says that when her mom was not there and not answering calls or texts, it just didn't feel right.

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306.716 - 314.121 Raquel Bock

If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would. If I didn't respond to a text message in five minutes, I was getting another one.

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314.281 - 334.268 Advertisement Narrator

Hello? One of Dee's cars, a Hummer, was parked at the farm office just down the road. What about your mother's car that she drove all the time, the Cadillac? It was parked in the garage. So all your mother's cars are there? Yes. And she's not responding to any kind of calls or texts? No.

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335.902 - 346.025 Advertisement Narrator

The fertilizer sprayer, usually parked in a barn, was gone, and Raquel's stepfather, Dale Warner, was out on it working. Was that normal?

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346.365 - 352.907 Raquel Bock

Yeah. It was pretty normal for him to work any day, any time of day.

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353.527 - 358.008 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel went down the road to Dee's brother Greg and his wife Shelly's house.

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358.817 - 368.388 Shelly

She said, we can't find her. And I'm like, what do you mean you can't find her? They said, her car's here. We have called everybody. We don't know where she's at.

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369.048 - 376.617 Greg Cote

The first thing I did was call her number. If she was somewhere, she would answer my phone call. And then I text her. And did you? And nothing.

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379.031 - 386.634 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel and her aunt Shelly went driving to look for Dee. They returned to her house with only more questions.

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386.994 - 394.697 Shelly

There were blankets laying on the couch and tissues. Tissues everywhere. Everywhere there was these tissues.

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396.058 - 399.719 Advertisement Narrator

They looked upstairs in the bedroom and bathroom for clues.

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400.319 - 404.021 Raquel Bock

Her makeup bag was gone. Her curling iron and all of that stuff was gone.

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404.696 - 424.704 Advertisement Narrator

Later, they learned Dee's phone and passport were missing, too. The feeling that I had in my stomach was nothing but fear. Zach Bach, another of Dee's four children from her first marriage, soon came over to join the search. He went down to the farm office to look for any sign of his mom.

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425.264 - 427.645 Zach Bock

There's cameras here in the office. I'll look at the cameras.

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427.985 - 432.447 Advertisement Narrator

There was a security camera inside the office and a few more outside.

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432.97 - 438.013 Zach Bock

I never saw her walk to the office. I never saw her drive a vehicle. I didn't see her.

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440.434 - 454.302 Advertisement Narrator

And there was something else out of the ordinary. Their nine-year-old sister Lena, Dee and Dale's only child together, had stayed at her cousin's house the night before, and Dee hadn't yet called or come to get her.

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455.083 - 458.685 Raquel Bock

Lena went everywhere with my mom. They were very, very close.

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459.264 - 463.108 Advertisement Narrator

And would she ever leave Lena behind with Dale? Never.

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465.09 - 470.254 Zach Bock

I called my siblings. We met up at my house, and we called the Sheriff's Department.

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471.376 - 493.223 Advertisement Narrator

By now, it was late in the day on Sunday, and the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office sent a deputy to talk to Dale. the conversation was recorded on a body camera. This and other body cam footage has been adjusted at times for clarity.

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493.783 - 495.464 Dale Warner

She was sleeping on the couch.

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495.884 - 500.945 Advertisement Narrator

Dale told police he had last seen Dee that morning before he went out to work.

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501.506 - 508.988 Dale Warner

And then this morning around 6 o'clock, I got up and, you know, she was snoring away. I texted her and she didn't answer, so I figured, well, she's still sleeping.

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509.639 - 515.981 Advertisement Narrator

Dale seemed to believe his wife was alive and well, and that she left intentionally.

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516.001 - 526.084 Dale Warner

While her haircut was gone, her hair dryer's gone, her makeup bag's gone, I went in and seen all that stuff gone. I wasn't real concerned.

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526.601 - 529.503 Advertisement Narrator

He said she might be using another phone.

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530.023 - 537.168 Dale Warner

I told the other kids she's got a second phone. Do you have a phone number? No, it's a secret phone that she doesn't know that I know she has it.

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537.729 - 549.177 Advertisement Narrator

Dale also told police that Dee had been upset and suffering from a migraine the night before after an argument with two of her employees. I came home last night.

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551.909 - 563.215 Dale Warner

talking bad things as far as employees, and one employee decided to quit. We've got three different businesses here, so the tensions are high all the time.

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563.736 - 569.499 Advertisement Narrator

Dale and Dee ran three main businesses from their farm. Zach was their bookkeeper.

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570.239 - 574.922 Zach Bock

My mom ran essentially the office for all three businesses.

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575.582 - 580.005 Advertisement Narrator

There was a trucking business with about 15 employees that Dee managed.

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580.566 - 582.947 Zach Bock

She always referred to it as her trucking business.

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583.447 - 593.19 Advertisement Narrator

And there was the farm itself and a chemical company that sold fertilizer and seed. Which was the most successful? Which did the best?

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593.21 - 595.471 Stephanie Vogel

100% the trucking company.

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596.091 - 608.295 Advertisement Narrator

Stephanie Vogel worked for Dale and Dee and describes Dee as a good business person, tough, generous, and hardworking. But Raquel says that running that trucking business was not easy for Dee.

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609.249 - 615.873 Raquel Bock

I know that she had a hard time getting respect from some of the farmers because she was a woman and younger and pretty.

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616.273 - 623.137 Advertisement Narrator

Dale told police that conflict between Dee and their employees was nothing new. I don't know.

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630.503 - 632.384 Dale Warner

She's in your face to tell you how it is.

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632.864 - 645.087 Advertisement Narrator

On Saturday, the day before she went missing, Dee had texted Stephanie asking her how to block the driver who had quit from the company's Facebook page. I told her how to do it.

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647.208 - 649.749 Stephanie Vogel

That was at 4.34.

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650.589 - 652.87 Advertisement Narrator

On Saturday afternoon, April 24th.

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652.99 - 666.081 Stephanie Vogel

Yep. And then at 4.44, I said, did you tell Zach? At 7.43, I said, how are you? And she never answered.

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666.842 - 684.91 Advertisement Narrator

That's the very last time you ever heard from Dee Warner. Dee's sister-in-law, Shelly, wondered if the pressures had just become too much for Dee. You're thinking at that point, she might have taken her life?

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686.109 - 691.173 Greg Cote

I did. We were worried because of everyone's report of her emotional behavior.

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691.433 - 694.955 Shelly

She had been upset and had an argument on Friday and Saturday.

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695.235 - 696.717 Greg Cote

The crescendo was building up.

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697.177 - 709.766 Unknown

There might have been a breaking point. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery.

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710.026 - 711.327 Unknown

We don't know what we're looking for.

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712.21 - 715.854 Unknown

Their bodies are the scene of the crime. Their symptoms and history are clues.

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716.374 - 717.455 Raquel Bock

You saved her life.

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718.436 - 720.178 Unknown

We're doctors and we're detectives.

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720.859 - 722.52 Raquel Bock

I kind of love it, if I'm being honest.

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723.001 - 724.903 Unknown

Solve the puzzle, save the patient.

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725.483 - 732.65 Unknown

Morris Chestnut is Watson. Now streaming on Paramount+. And new episodes return Sunday, February 16th on CBS.

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744.175 - 763.166 Advertisement Narrator

Can you think of a day when no one knew where your mother was? A full day? No. After hearing nothing from Dee Warner, some of those closest to her feared she may have harmed herself. And they noticed that Dale, her husband, didn't seem very worried.

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763.546 - 765.247 Dale Warner

She'll cool off and she'll come back home.

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766.668 - 772.191 Advertisement Narrator

Dale had told police that Dee, when upset, had a history of spending the night elsewhere.

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772.807 - 774.63 Dale Warner

She took all her bags, so somebody picked her up.

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775.412 - 778.678 Advertisement Narrator

And he said he thought she might come back eventually.

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778.698 - 783.728 Dale Warner

I don't know what else to do other than wait a day or so and see what she shows up.

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785.233 - 813.246 Advertisement Narrator

But the sheriff's office did not wait for Dee to show up. They came out on Monday and Tuesday to conduct interviews and search the property. On Thursday, four days after Dee disappeared, they searched the farm again. And Dale agreed to talk to them at length at the kitchen table. Dale now told investigators that he and Dee had had a fight on Saturday.

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813.766 - 854.75 Advertisement Narrator

He said she had accused him of talking about her behind her back to the employees she had fought with, which Dale denied. He said he didn't talk to Dee again until that evening at home when their fight continued. Dale and Dee had been partners in life and business since they started their first company together in 2005, the year before they got married. Was this a love match?

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855.55 - 856.99 Advertisement Narrator

Did you feel that way?

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857.03 - 859.831 Greg Cote

No. She had a desire for success.

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860.671 - 860.911 Advertisement Narrator

Yes.

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861.231 - 863.351 Greg Cote

I believe that's what her attraction was. I really do.

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864.112 - 877.512 Advertisement Narrator

They weren't an obvious pair. Dee's family and friends say she loved to have fun, dress up, go out, and dance. Dale, they say, just seemed to work a lot.

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879.592 - 888.493 Stephanie Vogel

I don't know what she's seen in him. I really don't. He doesn't like to do things with her. I went on a cruise with her because he didn't want to go.

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889.074 - 894.034 Zach Bock

Dale was fairly quiet, kind of distant from all of us kids.

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894.715 - 900.649 Raquel Bock

When he did communicate, it was usually he kind of like to poke at people where he knew would hurt the worst.

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901.65 - 905.531 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel says Dale helped feed Dee's insecurities.

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907.012 - 917.777 Raquel Bock

I don't think she ever felt good enough. Like, she felt like she had to prove constantly everything in her life, her looks, her money, her businesses, everything.

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918.68 - 944.796 Advertisement Narrator

Dee's family later learned she had been having an affair. It didn't surprise them, they said, given the state of her marriage. But police say her affair partner was out of town the weekend she went missing and could not have had anything to do with the case. A week after her disappearance, Dee's brother Greg organized a search of the land around her home.

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945.495 - 955.103 Greg Cote

We all went on foot, and we walked probably 500, 600, 700 acres. Wow. We came up zero.

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956.424 - 969.294 Advertisement Narrator

By now, Dee's family was growing suspicious of Dale. On the day Dee went missing, Dale told each of them what happened, but they say they all heard slightly different versions.

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969.995 - 986.865 Greg Cote

She'd had a bad migraine headache. She was laying on the floor. He gave her a massage. She went to sleep. He picked her up and put her on the couch about 12.30. He got up around 6, 6.30. He left, but she was snoring on the couch.

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987.906 - 991.05 Advertisement Narrator

Zach says Dale told him he had had a fight with Dee.

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991.621 - 993.922 Zach Bock

He said that they had a really big fight the night before.

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994.362 - 998.524 Advertisement Narrator

But Raquel says Dale told her the fight was no big deal.

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999.064 - 1004.847 Raquel Bock

He said that they had a little fight the night before and she was all mad and she won't answer him now.

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1005.887 - 1013.27 Advertisement Narrator

And there was another odd detail in the story Dale told Dee's family and police that Sunday.

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1013.29 - 1023.407 Dale Warner

The only thing that's really strange too is this time, Yeah, she's never done that before.

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1025.109 - 1048.272 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel, Zach, and Greg all say he showed them that ring on Sunday too, seeming to offer it as proof that Dee had left intentionally and maybe for good. But Greg says that ring is worth as much as $40,000. And leaving it behind didn't sound like Dee.

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1048.693 - 1056.599 Greg Cote

That's not my sister. Not only would she not give him the wedding ring back, she probably would have thrown a Molotov cocktail in the house on her way out.

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1058.22 - 1073.33 Advertisement Narrator

As time passed, the family's suspicions that Dale had harmed his wife only grew. About six weeks after Dee went missing, Greg says he confronted Dale about how he thought the investigation was progressing.

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1073.95 - 1102.947 Greg Cote

I asked him point blank, Dale, what do you think about your wife? I'm still missing. She just disappeared in thin air. And he said to me, well, it could be a little faster, but I think they're doing a good job. And that's when I told him. I said, you know what? You're a liar. And I told him, OK. You told him that? Yeah.

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1105.677 - 1127.121 Advertisement Narrator

But believing Dale had something to do with Dee's disappearance was very different from being able to prove it. The Michigan State Police and the FBI helped the county sheriff conduct a large-scale search of their properties again in October. But there was still no sign of Dee alive or dead.

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1127.761 - 1131.362 Shelly

We had been struggling because everybody said, you don't have a body, you don't have a body.

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1132.532 - 1145.423 Advertisement Narrator

In February 2022, 10 months after Dee had gone missing, Shelly was watching an episode of 48 Hours featuring an investigator named Billy Little.

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1145.903 - 1152.288 Billy

You don't have a body, so what? You don't get to get away with murder because you're good at disposing of bodies.

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1152.809 - 1161.816 Shelly

So I thought, oh my gosh, I got to have Greg see this. So he watched it. And immediately when he said that, he said, give me that, guys.

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1177.483 - 1179.945 Advertisement Narrator

Every time you go by here, does it hurt a little bit?

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1180.245 - 1181.666 Greg Cote

It hurts a lot every time.

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1182.947 - 1201.377 Advertisement Narrator

Greg Hardy was convinced Dale Warner was behind his sister's disappearance. Did she love living here? She did. Although the sheriff's office had conducted at least seven searches and interviewed Dale several times, Greg was growing impatient by what he saw as a lack of progress.

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1202.137 - 1212.259 Advertisement Narrator

Authorities, says Greg, told him that without a body, it would be difficult to charge Dale with murder, which is why Greg called Billy Little.

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1213.04 - 1218.801 Billy

Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you won't, but don't sit around waiting for Santa Claus to come. You gotta solve this case.

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1219.605 - 1226.611 Advertisement Narrator

Missouri-based attorney and investigator Billy Little made his first trip to Lenawee County in the spring of 2022.

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1226.891 - 1236.039 Billy

My goal is always to just discover the truth, find out what happened. The nice thing about the truth is it doesn't have a side.

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1236.92 - 1245.708 Advertisement Narrator

Billy Little got to work on his own investigation and learn from Dee's family that the couple argued frequently, especially about money.

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1246.397 - 1250.559 Billy

This was not a happy marriage, a marriage of endless love.

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1251.92 - 1269.43 Advertisement Narrator

Dee's adult children told him their mom had often talked about divorce, but that she didn't want to split custody of their little sister Lena with Dale. Still, the day before Dee disappeared, they say something had changed. Had you really seen your mother like that before?

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1271.067 - 1276.851 Raquel Bock

Upset, yes. But this was just very different. She was like almost calm.

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1278.512 - 1293.222 Advertisement Narrator

Dee's kids say that she had finally had enough and was going to tell Dale that night she wanted to sell the profitable trucking business and end her marriage. This was Dee's life. Why did she want to sell the business?

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1294.163 - 1301.869 Billy

Because it had become too difficult emotionally and personally for her. That's how bad the marriage had gotten.

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1303.39 - 1318.063 Advertisement Narrator

Greg told Billy Little that he thought Dale was moving money between the businesses after Dee disappeared. Greg had already filed a civil suit to protect Dee's interests and to get more information about what Dale was doing.

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1318.543 - 1320.865 Greg Cote

Call it gut feeling if you'd like, whatever you'd call it.

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1321.646 - 1336.237 Advertisement Narrator

In court documents, Dale says he did move money on the advice of professionals. The more Billy Little learned, he says, the more he, like the family, became convinced that Dee was no longer alive.

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1336.958 - 1354.065 Billy

The evidence that she's dead is the absence of evidence that she's alive. No surveillance cameras, no electronic signature, her phone's not found, her bank accounts were never accessed, cash wasn't taken from the house, even the ring. She didn't even take that.

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1356.536 - 1384.83 Advertisement Narrator

Greg and Billy Little tried to increase the pressure on Dale. Friends had started a social media campaign called Justice for Dee, and Greg paid for this billboard that he says he wrote sarcastically saying, Help Dale Find Dee. It went up at a big intersection near Dale's farm, where Greg says drivers from the trucking company would be sure to see it every day.

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1386.021 - 1391.166 Billy

helped Dale find Dee. It was part of almost psychological operations.

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1392.688 - 1400.916 Advertisement Narrator

But Little says he and Greg were mostly focused on trying to find evidence to help build a murder case without a body.

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1401.416 - 1406.301 Billy

You've got a lot of equipment. You've got a lot of chemicals. There are a lot of ways to dispose of a body on a farm.

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1407.697 - 1412.398 Advertisement Narrator

And they continued to search relentlessly for any trace of Dee.

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1412.418 - 1416.979 Greg Cote

You can see there's a silo right over there. That's the location of where the buildings were.

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1418.659 - 1445.39 Advertisement Narrator

This property, about three miles from Dale and Dee's home, is one of the places that stood out to Greg. Six months after Dee disappeared, there was a fire where the old farmhouse used to be. And Greg says the neighbors told him they thought Dale who owned the property with Dee, had set that fire. The fire was determined to be a controlled burn, which are common in the area.

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1446.23 - 1460.182 Advertisement Narrator

Police searched this site in October 2021, just a few days after that fire. It's not known what, if anything, they learned. Greg and Billy Little came here themselves the next year.

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1461.021 - 1468.186 Greg Cote

We used a drone to fly not only this site, but every site we could find around here. We flew a couple thousand acres of drone footage.

0
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1469.907 - 1476.672 Advertisement Narrator

They found nothing conclusive, but that old farm was just one site they thought was suspicious.

0
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1477.452 - 1481.295 Greg Cote

There's basically three or four major sites that bother me.

0
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1482.055 - 1486.699 Advertisement Narrator

There was a field near Raquel's house that Dale had farmed. Which one?

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1486.779 - 1488.46 Greg Cote

Where is it? It's right around the corner here.

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1490.342 - 1511.219 Advertisement Narrator

and another field two towns over that Dale had access to. And many more places Greg wanted police to check further. And isn't the really hard part about this, Greg, is there's just so many places. There are so many places. In August 2022, the Michigan State Police took over Dee's case.

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1511.979 - 1544.612 Advertisement Narrator

Greg and Billy Little had pushed for this because they say the state police had more experience and resources than the county sheriff. After the state police took over the case, they interviewed Dale again and pressed him on his story. Dale told them that the argument with that employee just before Dee disappeared was partly about Dee taking money from the business.

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1556.414 - 1575.742 Advertisement Narrator

But police did not have evidence that Dee had stolen money. In September, the family filed another suit to have Dee Warner declared legally dead. Greg says he wanted to be able to file a wrongful death suit against Dale one day. The family waited for news on the criminal case.

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1576.422 - 1582.965 Greg Cote

And then... It was pretty crazy because we had a meeting with the prosecutor the same day, and she gave me no indication.

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1584.921 - 1602.159 Advertisement Narrator

On November 21st, 2023, two and a half years after Dee Warner went missing, the news came that her husband Dale was under arrest. Stephanie was preparing for her mother's funeral when she got the call.

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1603.72 - 1613.976 Stephanie Vogel

Raquel's boyfriend called me and he said Dale was arrested for murder. And I fell to my knees at the funeral home, just so happy.

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1616.656 - 1620.077 Advertisement Narrator

Dale Warner was charged with the murder of his wife, Dee.

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1620.837 - 1623.377 Mary Chartier

Mr. Warner does enter a plea not guilty.

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1624.158 - 1633.099 Advertisement Narrator

He pleaded not guilty, and Dee's family braced themselves for a long legal battle ahead.

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1634.379 - 1637.4 Raquel Bock

However long it took, we wouldn't stop fighting.

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1655.785 - 1658.667 Advertisement Narrator

You had to testify? Were you nervous?

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1659.207 - 1664.51 Raquel Bock

Yeah. I mean, all you do is tell the truth. So that's what I kept telling myself.

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1666.531 - 1680.718 Advertisement Narrator

On May 1st, 2024, just a little more than three years after Dee Warner disappeared, her friends and family gathered here at the Lenawee County District Court for the first day of Dale Warner's preliminary hearing.

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1680.738 - 1681.819 Court Officer

All rise, please.

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1682.409 - 1691.173 Advertisement Narrator

It would be up to Judge Anna Freshour to decide if the case should move to trial. I was worried because there is so little physical evidence.

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1692.054 - 1694.175 Mary Chartier

There is no body.

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1694.455 - 1708.647 Advertisement Narrator

There are no body parts. Dee had been recently declared dead in civil court. But Dale Warner's defense attorney, Mary Chartier, said this was a fact prosecutors would need to establish themselves in the criminal case.

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1709.367 - 1713.528 Mary Chartier

Whether Ms. Warner is dead is something that the government needs to prove.

0
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1713.868 - 1715.989 Court Officer

Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth?

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1716.009 - 1723.171 Advertisement Narrator

But the state was determined to show that while there was no body, there was also no evidence that Dee was still alive.

0
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1723.791 - 1736.454 Rose

Since April 24th, 2021, have you seen Dee Warner? No. Have you heard from Dee Warner? No. In the months leading up to Dee going missing.

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1737.014 - 1743.279 Advertisement Narrator

And prosecutor Jackie Wise worked to show there was no evidence that Dee had taken off on her own.

0
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1743.299 - 1745.48 Dale Warner

She's got a second phone.

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1746.061 - 1751.044 Advertisement Narrator

She asked Stephanie Vogel about that secret phone that Dale claimed his wife had.

0
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1751.585 - 1754.587 Rose

Did she ever discuss getting a second phone with you?

0
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1755.512 - 1760.916 Stephanie Vogel

She did. She had asked me to look into pricing and trying to find one for her, yes.

0
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1761.196 - 1767.059 Rose

Okay, so up until April 25th, 2021, did you ever purchase that phone?

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💬 0

1767.34 - 1767.52 Stephanie Vogel

No.

0
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1768.14 - 1769.701 Rose

Could she have bought the phone on her own?

0
💬 0

1770.722 - 1777.165 Stephanie Vogel

Yeah, she could have bought it on her own, but she would have had somebody else set it up. She was not tech savvy.

0
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1777.185 - 1779.607 Rose

People would call Daniel Drouillard.

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1780.468 - 1797.524 Advertisement Narrator

Michigan State Police Detective Daniel Drouillard is the lead investigator on this case. You swear to tell the truth. He testified about the exhaustive searches law enforcement did to find any trace of activity from Dee over the three years she had been missing.

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1798.416 - 1807.565 Dan

We did search warrants for health care records, phone records. We searched numerous vehicles. We got records for social media. We did several land searches.

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1807.885 - 1823.42 Advertisement Narrator

All their searches came up empty. But Dee's daughter, Raquel, had noticed something curious at the Warner home. On the stand, she said that on the day her mother disappeared, she saw tire tracks by the back of the house.

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1823.905 - 1828.226 Raquel Bock

There were two tracks that led up to the sliding glass door.

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1829.627 - 1845.299 Advertisement Narrator

There were no security cameras pointed at this part of the property, but the prosecution suggested that the tracks Raquel saw were left by Dale using the farm's JCB front end loader to remove Dee's body from their home.

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1845.859 - 1855.446 Dan

When parking the front-end loader, the JCB, in this spot, the bucket attached to it fits between those two pillars, and you can set it on the deck up against the back door.

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1856.327 - 1880.872 Advertisement Narrator

Remember, Dale said his wife was asleep in the living room when he left that morning, close to those sliding doors. I didn't see any of them in the house. He was still sleeping. In his 2022 interview with police, Dale had an explanation for those tracks. He said he thought he used the loader to go back to the house and get his worksheet for the sprayer at around 6.30 a.m.

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1880.892 - 1894.323 Dale Warner

I think I had to run in and grab my damn sheet, my load sheet, I don't remember for sure. I come back to JCB, the loader, pulled around by the house, and I run in and I had to grab something out of the house, and I run back out and got the loader.

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1895.754 - 1899.816 Mary Chartier

No evidence that Ms. Warner is dead and no evidence that she was murdered was found, correct?

0
💬 0

1899.996 - 1900.396 Dan

Yes, ma'am.

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1901.077 - 1930.086 Advertisement Narrator

The defense emphasized there was no evidence Dale Warner had anything to do with Dee's disappearance. And in fact, his statements about what he was doing that morning were supported by security videos around the farm. The videos, played in court, showed Dale at 7 a.m. using that front-end loader. At 7.45 a.m., police say he texts Dee, going to be spraying, call you later.

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1930.106 - 1938.189 Advertisement Narrator

He is seen three minutes later driving a sprayer onto the road and returning at 8.13 a.m.

0
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1938.849 - 1943.811 Mary Chartier

So you had the sprayer records for the John Deere, and then did you actually even do a sprayer reenactment?

0
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1944.132 - 1944.832 Dan

We did, yes, ma'am.

0
💬 0

1945.032 - 1946.973 Mary Chartier

Consistent with what Mr. Warner said, right?

0
💬 0

1947.293 - 1949.754 Dan

Consistent with the time that occurred on that morning, yes.

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1951.618 - 1956.002 Advertisement Narrator

The defense also argued that Dale had not acted like a guilty man.

0
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1956.022 - 1957.123 Stephanie Vogel

Are you Dale?

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1957.924 - 1972.677 Advertisement Narrator

He allowed police to search his properties and spoke to them many times after D disappeared. Only parts of a few of those interviews were played in court, but his attorney said that Dale had repeatedly denied harming D.

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1974.221 - 1984.87 Mary Chartier

Of all the phone calls and interviews with Mr. Warner, he never once said he harmed his wife, correct? Correct. He was always adamant that he did not, correct?

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1987.513 - 1992.277 Advertisement Narrator

Over and over, the defense underscored the lack of physical evidence in the case.

0
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1992.617 - 1994.178 Mary Chartier

Do you have a murder weapon in this case?

0
💬 0

1994.439 - 1994.739 Dan

No, ma'am.

0
💬 0

1995.019 - 1996.661 Mary Chartier

Big pool of blood, anything like that?

0
💬 0

1997.001 - 1999.083 Dan

No, we have no forensic evidence of that nature. No, ma'am.

0
💬 0

1999.58 - 2002.362 Mary Chartier

They hone in on Mr. Warner from the beginning.

0
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2003.062 - 2009.606 Advertisement Narrator

In her final statement to the judge, Mary Chartier argues that there is no basis for the charges.

0
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2010.526 - 2015.409 Mary Chartier

If he murdered his wife, where on earth is Ms. Warner?

0
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2017.69 - 2019.451 Rose

Since 4-25-2021, nobody has heard from or seen Dee Warner.

0
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2024.175 - 2028.916 Advertisement Narrator

Prosecutor Jackie Wise maintained that the state's case was strong.

0
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2029.656 - 2039.078 Rose

All we're required to prove at this stage is probable cause to believe that Dale Warner killed Dee Warner, and probable cause standard has been met.

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2040.199 - 2050.761 Advertisement Narrator

The decision was now with the judge, and Dee's supporters were worried. Would Dale now face the murder charge at trial, or would he walk out as a free man?

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2052.23 - 2056.393 Raquel Bock

The thought of him getting out was just scary. Do we have enough?

0
💬 0

2073.664 - 2074.424 Court Officer

All rise, please.

0
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2075.445 - 2080.288 Advertisement Narrator

How nervous were you before the judge issues the ruling?

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2081.754 - 2091.44 Raquel Bock

It was horrible. It was so horrible. I felt like I could just curl up in a ball and ugh.

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2095.122 - 2103.467 Advertisement Narrator

On June 7, 2024, Judge Anna Freshour returned to court with her decision. She first spoke about Dee.

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💬 0

2104.147 - 2116.646 Judge Anna Freshour

Dee Warner was a woman with a big heart and a temper. She cared for her children and grandchildren and employees. There was nothing in the evidence that suggested she would disappear intentionally, especially from her children.

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2117.247 - 2121.431 Advertisement Narrator

And there was nothing she heard, the judge said, that made her feel differently.

0
💬 0

2122.032 - 2124.374 Judge Anna Freshour

The statements by Dale Warner of a secret phone.

0
💬 0

2124.595 - 2125.756 Dale Warner

She's got a second phone.

0
💬 0

2125.996 - 2132.163 Judge Anna Freshour

And someone coming to pick up Dee Warner. She's with someone somewhere. Were not supported by any facts or evidence in this case.

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2132.83 - 2140.698 Advertisement Narrator

But there was enough evidence, she said, to believe that Dee Warner was dead and that her husband was likely the one behind it.

0
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2141.299 - 2148.967 Judge Anna Freshour

There's probable cause that Dee Warner died by homicide at the hands of the defendant, Dale Warner. All rise. This is reality.

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2149.327 - 2154.832 Raquel Bock

They think that there's enough evidence that he killed our mom to go to trial.

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2155.714 - 2163.959 Advertisement Narrator

Dale Warner has been ordered to stand trial for the murder of his wife. But Billy Little knows the real work is still ahead.

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2164.479 - 2175.305 Billy

My fear for getting past a preliminary hearing is probably a 1 out of 10. My fear of getting a conviction at trial is probably an 8 out of 10.

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2175.825 - 2176.606 Advertisement Narrator

It's a high bar.

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0
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2178.897 - 2196.883 Advertisement Narrator

Law enforcement was still searching for physical evidence. And in August 2024, two months after that preliminary hearing concluded, that's exactly what they found. Breaking news in the case of Dee Warner. Dee's family heard about it first.

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2197.885 - 2206.112 Raquel Bock

I received a message that said we need to have an emergency meeting with the detectives.

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2206.432 - 2229.605 Advertisement Narrator

They met detectives at Greg and Shelley's farm. Police told them they had gone back to a property that Dale and Dee owned and taken away a large metal tank that was used to store fertilizer. According to a search warrant, that tank had a non-factory weld on the back and a sign on it that said, out of service, do not fill.

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2231.465 - 2239.167 Advertisement Narrator

When the tank was scanned, investigators finally found what they had been looking for. It was my mom.

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2239.907 - 2242.928 Raquel Bock

Well, it was a body in a tank.

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2243.743 - 2255.159 Advertisement Narrator

It took just days, authorities say, to confirm that the body inside that tank was Dee Warner. Her death was ruled a homicide.

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2255.88 - 2259.285 Greg Cote

And how did she die? They're not sharing that with me.

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2260.549 - 2276.994 Advertisement Narrator

Authorities are not granting any interviews about this case before the trial, but that warrant also says that security video from the day Dee was reported missing showed Dale in one of the farm buildings searching for something near the welding equipment.

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2277.954 - 2288.377 Advertisement Narrator

For three years, police had been looking for Dee's body underground, and now they had come to believe that she might have been concealed above ground.

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2289.192 - 2296.134 Greg Cote

The tank was in this agricultural storage building right behind me. And was the cylinder right in here? Yeah, it was parked here.

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2296.634 - 2307.157 Advertisement Narrator

So Dale would have access to all this. He did. Greg says he has no doubt now that Dale killed Dee and hid her body.

0
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2307.957 - 2314.499 Greg Cote

All these things point in one single direction, clearly, without any question. And that's a Dale. That's correct.

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2315.199 - 2341.577 Advertisement Narrator

Dale's defense attorney declined to speak to 48 Hours on Camera, but she told us that Dale maintains his innocence and said in this email, they're prepared to vigorously fight for him in court and present his defense. Isn't it likely that Dale's gonna argue, well, that was a cylinder sitting out in a barn. Anybody had access to that cylinder. Someone could have come into his own.

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2343.078 - 2344.9 Advertisement Narrator

barn and put your mom?

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💬 0

2345.1 - 2350.204 Raquel Bock

Absolutely. I mean, he can say anything.

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2352.446 - 2359.432 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel says finding her mom's body after these three long years gave the family a sense of peace.

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2360.393 - 2366.599 Raquel Bock

I wanted to shout from the rooftops to everybody that she didn't leave us willingly.

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2369.741 - 2379.587 Advertisement Narrator

Dee's family laid her to rest in a private burial soon after her body was identified. Her daughter Lena, now 12, was with them.

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2380.488 - 2388.373 Greg Cote

The one thing that she knows for sure, that was her mother there. That her mother didn't leave her. It was real.

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2390.454 - 2398.059 Shelly

It's like you get hit in the stomach every time. I miss her laughter and her comfort.

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2399.175 - 2399.675 Advertisement Narrator

You miss her?

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💬 0

2400.156 - 2403.398 Stephanie Vogel

Very much. I miss her every day.

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2406.74 - 2414.004 Advertisement Narrator

Raquel and Zach say they miss their mother deeply and that her death has changed them in profound ways.

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💬 0

2414.985 - 2431.497 Zach Bock

I am now three years sober. And shortly after she went missing, I started my own real estate company. I stopped being scared of failing on something because there was nothing left to lose.

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2433.358 - 2442.819 Raquel Bock

He's my mom's spirit. Very hardworking and driven and determined.

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2445.82 - 2448.941 Advertisement Narrator

Your children will grow up hearing about Dee.

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💬 0

2449.141 - 2449.321 Raquel Bock

Yeah.

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2449.561 - 2451.441 Advertisement Narrator

What will you tell them about your mother?

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💬 0

2452.805 - 2467.992 Raquel Bock

Oh, my mom enjoyed being a grandma so much. They will always remember how she would have been there. My mom would have been there for everything.

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2475.796 - 2478.917 Advertisement Narrator

Dale Warner's trial is scheduled to begin on September 2nd, 2025.

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2483.67 - 2497.111 Unknown

Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

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